Fiction, 2021
Reality is something that most of us assume we have a grasp on. On the other hand, the disintegration of it is a collective experience: deja vu, empty parking lots at an undefined time, leaving the cinema to find bright sunshine, and reading novels that are so propulsive that you routinely forget that you are a flesh-bag in the “real world”. Case Study repeatedly made me lose my grip on reality, an excellent feat for any novelist, but especially for one whose characters are experiencing the same spiral into insanity.
I couldn’t put Case Study down. If there was a one-minute wait while I reheated coffee, I would read this novel. The points of view are fractured, as are the mental states of the characters. Partly from the perspective of a researcher compiling a biography of Collins Brathwaite (psychotherapist who thinks Freud is garbage), and partly from the perspective of a woman who believes her sister was driven to suicide by Brathwaite, the novel zig-zags between these two worlds at a dizzying speed. As more about the characters is revealed, the reader finds an alternative version of history presented. For example, it casually mentions the launch of a magazine in October 1966 that Paul McCartney (true) and Brathwaite attended while heavily implying a conversation of significance between the two (false???)
One of my favourite aspects about it was how deeply the philosophy of Brathwaite is explained. We are exposed to passages from Nietzsche that he frequented, we read sections of his thesis, and most fascinatingly, we see how he turned his ideas into a psychological phenomenon. For a book that doesn’t reach 300 pages, it does a lot. Read at your own risk.
Song - Visions of Gideon - Sujan Stevens
Film - Black Swan
Started this after I read your review. Great read!
Wonderful. I wish I could read all these books, especially this one! Can you suggest a way to find time in a busy day, for reading :) Not sleep???